


Like a Kite

by letters_of_stars



Category: Supernatural
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-03-20
Updated: 2013-03-20
Packaged: 2017-12-05 22:55:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/728826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/letters_of_stars/pseuds/letters_of_stars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“It’s my last summer here, Cas,” he says, leaning back to gesture to the fair around them, the banners, the lights, the running kids and harried parents, the vendors with their cotton candy and caramel apples. “One last chance, and then I’m gone. Off to bigger and brighter places. You could never see me again.” He swings back in closer once more, and Cas narrows his eyes at his playfully. “And then when you miss me all you’re going to be able to say is ‘oh how I wish I’d done a turn on the Ferris wheel with Dean Winchester just once’. But it’ll be too late.”</p>
            </blockquote>





	Like a Kite

“I don’t even like the Ferris wheel, come on Dean, let’s go ride the Zipper...”   
“Just...one time, okay? Just...”  
Sam sighs, and rolls his eyes as he takes another bite of churro, the cinnamon sugar sticking to his lips as he speaks with his mouth full. “But you don’t like the Ferris wheel either, it’s boring, Dean, I don’t wanna...”  
“Fine.” Dean reaches into his shorts pocket and grabs the string of tickets there, much smaller now than they had been this afternoon, a little bit greasy from the hotdog he’d had for dinner. He rips off two tickets and waves them in Sam’s face. “You can ride the zipper. Just...don’t get killed, and don’t tell Dad I let you go alone.”  
Sam’s face lights into a smile as he snatches the tickets away. “Cool! Meet you at the cotton candy?”  
“Deal.” Dean sends him off with a shove to the shoulder, and watches Sam maneuver his way through the crowds, a little dark shadow occasionally lit up with the lights of the booths and rides, still munching on his churro. Dean considers calling after him to tell him to wait a few minutes after eating before riding the Zipper, but the line is probably long enough it won’t be a problem. And Dean has somewhere to be anyways.   
Sam is a bit too young to understand the appeal of the Ferris wheel, but the teenage couples waiting in line sure aren’t. Dean just pushes his way past them, ignoring the indignant looks they shoot him on the way. He’s pretty sure he recognizes half of these kids from school, but it’s the weekend, so close to summer, and he’s not obligated to stop to talk to any of them. There’s only one person here he’s interested in, and he’s currently sitting behind the operating booth, watching the ride above go around with a detached expression on his face.  
“Hey Cas.” Dean drops his arms on the booth with a grin, and Cas starts, the sudden motion rocking him a little on his stool as he moves his gaze down.   
“Dean,” he says, breathless, smile blossoming on his face, and Dean’s grin grows wider.   
“How you been?”   
“I’ve been good. I...wait, Dean, can you move?” Cas frowns a little and reaches forward to push at Dean’s shoulder, shoving him off to the side so he can take the ticket of the rather annoyed man behind him. “Thank you, sir. Anna will help you into your seat.”   
Dean glances around at the words--he hadn’t noticed Cas’s sister before, but there she is, a flash of red by the bottom of the Ferris wheel. “Hey Anna!” he calls, and she looks up from giving the standard safety talk and waves before cupping her hands around her mouth to shout,  
“You making moves on my brother again, Winchester?”  
Cas groans loudly and reaches around to slap at Dean’s arm when he gives Anna the thumbs-up. “Oh shut up Dean.”   
“She said it, not me.”  
“But you’re the one who came here in the first place.” Cas’s dour look turns into a patented smile as he reaches forward to take the ticket from the next giggling couple, and he moves down to crank the lever and shift the Ferris wheel around one slot, so Anna can help the people in that seat get out and the next ones climb in.   
Dean slips under the rope, ignoring Cas’s small yelp of protest, and sidles up next to him, placing one foot on the lower rungs of his stool. “You’re the one who promised.”  
“Promised what?” Cas starts the Ferris wheel moving, and the groan and creak of machinery overtakes their conversation. Dean takes it as an opportunity to move in closer, shifting forward and tilting his head to one side invitingly. Cas already knows what he’s going to say, of course, but he has to say it anyway.   
“Take a ride with me. Come on Cas.”  
“Dean. I can’t,” Cas tells him, shaking a little even as he smiles and turns pink in the cheeks, “I have to...”  
“I’ve seen Anna running this entire joint by herself, c’mon.”   
Cas sighs dramatically, and turns towards Dean so their noses are inches apart. He looks just as Dean remembers him from last summer, if perhaps a little more tired, a little older. He smiles, and lifts his chin. A challenge. The same challenge they’ve been playing just once a year, for seven years now, every time Cas rolls into town with his carnival family. “Convince me, then,” he says, eyes flickering bright in the moving lights of the Ferris wheel, and Dean grins, because he knows this game too well, even if he has yet to win it.  
“It’s my last summer here, Cas,” he says, leaning back to gesture to the fair around them, the banners, the lights, the running kids and harried parents, the vendors with their cotton candy and caramel apples. “One last chance, and then I’m gone. Off to bigger and brighter places. You could never see me again.” He swings back in closer once more, and Cas narrows his eyes at his playfully. “And then when you miss me all you’re going to be able to say is ‘oh how I wish I’d done a turn on the Ferris wheel with Dean Winchester just once’. But it’ll be too late.”  
“I travel around a lot,” Cas tells him with a smirk. “With my abysmal luck I’ll be running into you all over the place. You can get your ride next year.” He pushes gently at Dean’s shoulder so he can reach down and stop the Ferris wheel, and waits patiently for Anna to help the people out before moving it for the next seat.   
“You said that last year too,” Dean reminds him. “Said that you’d ride with me. Come on Cas. You promised.”  
Cas shakes his head again and ignores him as he holds out a hand for the next pair of tickets. “Thank you. If you just step over there, Anna will help you into your seats. Dean...”  
“Hey Winchester!” They both turn at the shout, and Dean suppresses his groan at the sight of Ash standing over in the path, Pam at his side. Ash is carrying a giant purple stuffed gorilla, but it’s not quite big enough to hide his smirk. “This your boyfriend?”  
“He wishes so much!” Cas tells them, before swiveling on his stool to grab some more proffered tickets. Dean takes it as an opportunity to sidle closer to the path, flipping Ash off as he moves.  
The only reaction this receives is Ash clutching at his chest and whining, “I’m wounded, Winchester, really.”  
“You couldn’t find anyone better to take you on a date, Pam?” Dean asks, and she grins, folding her hand on her hip.   
“It’s not a date, Dean. It’s a beneficial partnership between two artists.”  
“Let me guess. You’ve been working the boardwalk?”  
She salutes him, and pats the wad of cash he can see poking out of her jean pocket. “All night long. You wanna jump in? Can cut you a share.”  
He shakes his head, and swats away the gorilla Ash tries to push in his face. “No thanks. But hey, if you head on down by the Zipper, can you check on Sam? I sent the kid down that way like ten minutes ago, if you could just check he’s doing okay.”  
“Yeah, sure thing. Come on, loser.” Pam catches Ash’s arm as she turns and begins to drag him away. “Good luck with your boy.”  
“Check you later, Winchester,” Ash calls, and Dean waves them off before spinning around and jogging back to Cas’s side. Cas stifles a laugh when Dean slides an arm across his shoulders, and Dean catches a few people in line sending them dirty looks, but he ignores them in favor of leaning against Cas and making his stool tilt dangerously.   
“Dean...” Cas warns him, putting one foot on the ground to steady himself.   
“One ride, Cas. Come on. You told me once that your favorite thing in the world is riding the wheel. So do it with me. Just once.”  
Cas pauses, eyes him, and slowly starts the Ferris wheel going again. “I haven’t been convinced.”   
“Will you let yourself be convinced?”  
Cas grins at that, and his eyes crinkle at the corners when he smiles, because he knows exactly what he’s doing. “I think so. This year. You just have to work harder.”  
It’s as good as a yes. “Fine.” Dean’s arm slips from around Cas’s shoulders and migrates to his waist, that same easy touch they’ve established. He remembers last year, how he’d been able to sneak off on Sunday and arrive at the fair as soon as it opened, and hang around the Ferris wheel all day with Cas and Anna, helping them on occasion. Remembers how after the fair had closed, he’d walked with Cas to the Impala, that lone car in the parking lot, and laid with him up on the hood, one arm wrapped under Cas’s back. How Cas had whispered about stars and constellations and places he’d seen, and Dean had whispered back about dreams and car trips and places he wants to go. How Cas had laid his head on Dean’s shoulder and thrown an arm across his body, held him close, and never said a thing about it, because that’s just what they’ve created, in those odd two days they have for each other every year, a clockwork teenage romance. Never enough for a relationship, never enough for that. But enough to realize what they could have, if they only had the chance.   
Cas shivers slightly at the touch, but leans into it anyways, and Dean keeps his voice low, so no one else can hear them, though he can still feel the occasional curious gaze being shot their way. He shifts, just a little, so they’re both more hidden by the ticket booth. “Let me tell you what we’re gonna do.” He uses his other hand, points up into the sky to follow the lazy circle of the Ferris wheel. “You and me, we’re going to get into one of those little seats, and we’re going to ride all the way up to the top. And just sit there, and stare out over everyone, because we’ll be at the top of the world.” He doesn’t take his eyes off of Cas as he speaks, and Cas doesn’t blink, staring right back at him with that smile he saves just for Dean. “And while we’re up there...” Dean pauses, and swallows down the dryness in his throat, goes for broke, “Well, I’ll probably ask if I can kiss you, because I’ve wanted to do that for three years now. You know that. And this might be my last chance.”  
Cas raises his eyebrows, and his mouth drops open just a little, curled at the edge in a smile. “Oh really?”  
“Yes, really, you ass,” Dean grumbles, studying his hand placed on Cas’s waist rather than his eyes, the way his fingers catch at the worn fabric of Cas’s cardigan. He can feel his face heating up already--he’s not used to exposing himself like this, but Cas has always made it impossible not to. Damn him.   
But Cas’s touch is gentle as he guides Dean’s chin back up, and it’s impossible to be embarrassed, not with Cas looking at him like that. “Okay,” he says, voice rough. “Okay. I will ride with you. And when you ask if you can kiss me...” He smiles at that. “I might even say yes.”  
Before Dean even has a chance to respond, Cas is turning him around by the shoulders and ushering him away. “Not now though. Too busy. Come back around eleven.” He speaks quickly, and when Dean looks back over his shoulder, he can already see the blush creeping up Cas’s face. It’s way more endearing than it has any right to be.  
“Eleven?” he asks, not even trying to hide his grin as Cas pushes him back over the rope partition.   
“Eleven,” Cas tells him, biting at his lip to hold back the smile, and sends Dean off with a final shove between the shoulder blades.   
Dean laughs, and smirks at the girl waiting in line who’s eying him suspiciously. He twirls around to wave at Anna once more, and she wrinkles her nose and giggles as she makes a shooing gesture with her hands. Cas has already retreated behind the safety of his booth, but he’s still looking in Dean’s direction, and Dean shoots him a wink before heading back towards the path and into the main flow of the carnival-goers.   
He glances back once before he rounds the corner to head towards the other rides, but Cas has already busied himself with tickets once again.   
Sam has just staggered off the Zipper when Dean gets there. He’s grinning and laughing quietly to himself as he clutches at his stomach, and Dean reaches out to ruffle his hair. “Heya Sammy.”  
Sam turns his face up and closes his eyes against the bright lights of the ride. “That was the best thing ever!”  
Dean reaches out to steady his shoulders and move them out of the flow of people. “It was the last thing, too. Come on dude, I’m taking you home.”  
“Why?” Sam brushes away his hands and sticks out his lower lip, though he starts following Dean towards the exit just the same. “It’s not late.”  
“No, but I wanna drive you home and then get back here before it closes. Now come on.”  
“But...but...” Sam groans and follows Dean through the crowds, making tiny noises of protest as he goes. “Why?”  
Dean doesn’t answer him, and Sam huffs, and crosses his arms as he walks. Dean makes sure to get his hand stamped as they leave through the gates, and hurries Sam along in the parking lot amid the cars, keeping his fingers gripped tight around Sam’s shirt so he can’t slip away in the dark and get run-over. Sam crosses his arms and sinks down his seat as soon as he climbs in the passenger side, and Dean laughs before he reaches over and punches him lightly in the shoulder. “It’ll be here again next year.”  
“Yeah, but you won’t be,” Sam mutters, as Dean starts the engine and pulls out of the parking space, stopping to let a father and daughter run behind them, a balloon clutched tight in her hand. He waits until they’ve safely maneuvered out of the parking lot before he glances over at Sam.   
“Hey. Sammy. It’s not like I’m just gonna leave you behind, man. It’s just college.”  
Sam sighs, and the dour expression on his face is momentarily lit up by a green light as they pass through an intersection. “I know, it’s just...”  
“Just nothing,” Dean tells him firmly, pressing his foot a little more firmly to the gas pedal. “It’s you and me, dude. Nothing’s going to change.”  
Sam smiles, just a little, and then it becomes a smirk. “So why are you going back to the fair then?”  
“None of your business,” Dean tells him, just a little too quickly, and Sam just laughs and teases all the way home.

***

The parking lot is nearly empty when he gets back, and Dean is able to slide into a place right by the gates. He can already see Anna waiting for him right inside, sitting up on a closed vendors booth and knocking her feet against the wood.   
“Hey there Winchester,” she calls as soon as he’s passed by the gate, flashing his stamped hand to the man there, who waves him through with disinterest.   
“Milton,” he greets her, sauntering up to where she sits, and Anna gives him a tiny salute before jumping down to the ground, dust billowing up under her sneakers when she touches down.   
“How you been?”  
“Busy. You and Cas don’t know how lucky you got it.” There’s not much of a chance for formal education when your entire family runs a travelling carnival. Cas had told him about his father’s fumbling attempts at homeschool once. ‘He gave up when I turned fourteen,’ he’d said. ‘Now I just read a lot.’  
Anna doesn’t seem to think much of the experience either. She makes a face, and falls into step besides Dean, heading straight for the brightly lit Ferris wheel like a beacon in the center of the fair. Only a few lingerers remain, claiming final prizes and going on rides just one last time now the lines are down, and all the vendors are packing up their trucks to go. A couple of the people running the boardwalk stalls wave at them as they pass, and Dean waves back. He’s been allowed a glimpse into this world, through Cas and Anna, and he’s going to miss it.   
“You have a good year?” he asked Anna and she seesaws her hand in a so-so motion.   
“It was alright. Been hotter than usual down south, so we didn’t get as big a turn out as we wanted, but we got permission to set up outside Chicago in July, so that’ll be good.” She glances over at slyly. “Cas missed you.”   
Dean warms inside at the knowledge. Sometimes--well no, a lot of the time--he thinks it’s stupid, the way he gets hung up over Cas when he’s not in town, not the least because that’s 363 days of the year. He can’t count the number of dates he’s turned down in the past three years because he can’t shake the idea that it would be unfair to Cas, can’t shake the idea of blue eyes and wind tousled hair, that quirky smile. It’s ridiculous and he knows it, because Cas and him? They’re not practical. Nothing about them is practical. But he can’t help but always be drawn back. “He did, huh?”  
Anna grins, that universal grin of siblings about to rat the other out. “Oh yeah. Moping around for days after we left last year. Could barely stay in his seat driving here yesterday he was so excited.”  
Dean bites down a smile and rubs the back of his neck. “Yeah, well. Can’t blame him. I’m quite the charmer.”  
She shoves him lightly as they turn the corner to head straight to the Ferris wheel. “Oh shut up.”  
Dean can make out the figure sitting at the ticket booth already, all lit up with lights. There’s no one in line right now, and only a few couples Dean can see riding, one pair right up at the top, silhouetted against the stars.   
The first time they’d met, Cas had told Dean his favorite thing was to be right there, above the world, and that he always rode alone because no one else understood.   
Dean wants to understand so badly, has always wanted to. Even before realizing that what he felt for Cas was much more than friendship, he’s had the need to take Cas apart, find out how he works. But then he knows Cas has always felt the same way about him.   
Cas has just been much better at it, that’s all.   
He feels Anna peel away from his side as they approach, and watches her bob away to a ride down the way, where one of their blond-haired brothers is giving the last few riders the safety instructions for the Twirl-and-Whirl. Cas smiles at him when he joins him under the Ferris wheel, fingers tapping restlessly on the stool beneath him.   
“Hello again Dean.”   
“Hey.” Dean steps closer, closer than he has to, and Cas opens to him, shoulders relaxing, smile widening into a grin, just like always. “So, really, how you been?”  
Cas shrugs, and slips off his stool. He’s inches away, and has to tilt his head up to look at Dean directly. “Alright. I guess. You?”  
“Better now,” Dean tells him, and Cas rolls his eyes.   
“You haven’t changed much.”  
“Well, I pride myself on my consistency.”   
Cas laughs at that, and reaches out to stop the roller coaster just as the couple in it reaches the bottom. “Just a minute,” he says, and slips past Dean, hand brushing his as he goes. Dean leans against the stool and crosses his arms, smiling as he watches Cas help the people out of their seat. He hears Anna coming up behind him, and turns to meet her. She grins at him.   
“Go. Get your boy. I’ve got this.”  
He salutes her in thanks, and runs up to Cas to snag his arm just as he’s sending the man and woman away towards the main path. “Come on,” he says, and drags Cas with him towards the recently vacated seat. Cas stumbles at first, nearly falling into place, and Dean reaches out to steady him as he helps lower him down. He sits beside Cas, right close to him so their shoulders are brushing, and reaches up to yank the safety bar down over them. “Am I doing this right?”   
“Here, no, just...” Cas swats his hands away and jolts the security bar into place himself. “There.” He waves at Anna, who gives them the thumbs up, and starts the Ferris wheel up again. Dean jumps a little as the machine begins to move, the seat swinging back and forth as their feet leave the ground. “You know I...I’ve never been much of a fan of heights,” he tells Cas, and Cas smiles before leaning into Dean, so Dean’s arm can slip easily around his shoulders.   
“You’ll be fine. She won’t drop you.”  
“If you say so.”  
It feels like there should be more to say. They haven’t seen each other in a year, they should be filling each spare second with talk. But, somehow, that has never necessary with Cas. Talking seems excessive, when sitting there in silence, watching Cas’s face as they get higher and higher, tells Dean just as much. “I’ve missed you,” is all he says, and Cas shushes him even as he takes Dean’s hand in his, and stares out across the carnival growing smaller and smaller beneath them, the glowing lights and tinny music falling away as they ascend into the sky.   
Cas cranes his head up to stare at the moon heavy and full above them, settling more firmly against Dean’s side. The seat still rocks with the motion of the Ferris wheel, and Dean’s stomach jolts a bit each time, but Cas isn’t bothered by it, and Dean is beginning to see why this could be his favorite thing in the world.   
“You remember when we first met?” he asks, and Cas hums in agreement.   
“You were just as annoying then as you are now.”  
“Hilarious,” Dean tells him, and Cas chuckles.   
“I remember. We were eleven. You gave me half your pretzel.”  
“That’s right.”   
Cas smiles, and turns so he can look into Dean’s face. “How did we even become friends after that? I can’t even remember.”  
Dean shrugs. “I don’t know. You showed me the wheel, I won you a stuffed shark. Found you the next year. I think it just kind of…happened.”   
“Yeah.” Cas’s voice trails off, and he glances over the edge of their seat down to ground. Dean fights back the instinct to reach out and drag him back. “Everything is so small from up here,” Cas murmurs, folding his arms on the safety bar and resting his chin on top. “It’s peaceful. Like nothing can hurt you.”  
“The several hundred foot drop might.”   
Cas grins, and muffles his laugh in his sleeve, and when he tilts his head up to the sky his eyes are shining and his cheeks are red with laughter and the chill of the night and Dean thinks that seven years times two days is two weeks at most.   
How can it have been two weeks when he feels like he’s known Cas his entire life?   
How can it have been two weeks when he feels like he’s found the person he would spend his entire life with?  
“Staring is rude,” Cas tells him with a grin as he sits back beside Dean once more. Dean wrinkles his nose at him and turns his eye to the stars instead. They seem brighter from here.   
The Ferris wheel stops just as the reach the peak, and Dean is fairly certain Anna did that on purpose. The machinery groans, and shifts backwards by a few inches, and Cas laughs when Dean’s grip on his hand tightens.   
“You’re fine.”  
“I know I’m fine, I’m just…”  
Cas’s hand catches at his face, and Dean doesn’t even have time to close his eyes before Cas pushes up and kisses him, lips dry and chapped and soft against his own. He pulls away after a few seconds, and leans his forehead against Dean’s.   
“There,” he whispers, “There’s your kiss.”  
Dean’s breath leaves him in a rush—his mouth is tingling, and he can’t believe that the moment he’s been waiting for for years has just passed him by. “What? Just the one?” he jokes, and Cas smiles.   
“For old times’ sake,” he says, and leans forward once more, hand sliding around the cup Dean’s neck and draw him closer. Dean’s eyes fall shut and his hand not currently around Cas’s shoulders moves to the side of his head, thumb sweeping under Cas’s eye as Cas kisses him again, opening beneath Dean’s mouth with a gasp of air, and it’s everything Dean has pictured in his mind for the past three years, right down to the way Cas smiles against him and laughs a little as Dean chases his lips when Cas starts to break the kiss and swallows that laugh back down.   
“Hey Cas?” Dean asks, when they’re seated side by side once more, hands clasped tight between them as the Ferris wheel begins its rotation back down with a creak and a jolt. That inevitable downward motion, returning to the earth once more. Like a clock. Like a calendar. Like Castiel himself, circling back into Dean’s life every time only to leave again with the promise he’ll be back.   
And maybe that’s enough.  
“Yes, Dean?” Cas tilts his head to the side and watches him, and his face is still flushed with laughter, lips still kiss-swollen and red. Dean watches the moon disappear above their heads, and smiles.  
“How long do you think it takes to fall in love with someone?”  
Cas pauses, blinks once, and his eyes gleam when he leans in closer, grin working around the very edges of his mouth. “About two weeks, I would say.”  
Dean slips his arm back around Cas’s shoulders, and holds him tight. “Yeah, I thought so too.”

***

“Where will you be?” Cas asks him, sitting up on the hood of the Impala with hand curled in Dean’s jacket. He kisses him again, and again, and Dean barely has the breath left to answer.   
“Pennsylvania. I’ll be in Pennsylvania.”  
“September,” Cas whispers. “We’ll be there in September.”  
“I’ll see you then,” Dean tells him, and Cas repeats the words back to him.   
“See you then.”


End file.
